Punks on bikes: The Hyde Street Bomb

15 Comments:

No wonder two innocent pedestrians have been killed in San Francisco during the last 12 months by bicyclists racing through a red light.

No doubt the creepsblog types will countering, "Well so many pedestrians are killed by cars," so where is direct one-to-one comparison: How many pedestrians in SF have been killed by cars blatantly racing through a red light?

You left out how cyclists are getting hurt because there are no bike lanes, as seen in the video. That's it, that's what cyclists need to reduce risk. That and taking away helmet cams, You-Boob, MyFace, and Twit accounts so they all don't aspire to Jackass stardom.

It seems like people acting recklessly can wind up killing innocent people regardless of whether they're on a bike, on a motorcycle, in a car, or running around with a hand gun. In this case the bike is not the enemy, the person controlling it is. There are tons of videos on YouTube of motorcyclists bombing through crowded streets too. Jerks will be jerks, regardless of their weapon of choice.

There are some POV movies shot from the perspective of the saddle that have artistic value, so I was too quick to condemn. The bigger problem is posting videos for attention. All kinds of bad behavior is encouraged by the low cost and ease. A local example was on a HS field trip to the museum. Two girls climbed under exhibit ropes for a cell snap of one sitting on an antique bed for posting on Facebook. A boy eager to join the party jumped next to the girl on the bed collapsing it, causing damage beyond just the bed.

When there is a culture of risk taking and racing in cycling, motorcycling, skate boarding, base jumping, or whatever combined with easy distribution and social media reinforcing it, the combination too easily gets dangerous. Low cost of a high performance skateboard or bicycle than other modes allow many more and younger idiots to be stupid and dangerous. Obviously one can't ban all the ingredients, so fixing bad cultures is needed. Motorcycling is far more responsible than bicycling for working to discourage stupid behaviors. Cyclists need to get over their lifestyle culture and promote responsible transportation like grown ups. No stupid stuff on public streets. Save it for race tracks, closed parks, or closed courses. Criterion or Grand Prix: closed public streets. Don't play in traffic, grow up.

On the other hand, stupid behavior can be amusing, if you don't kill yourself or someone else. Take the TV show "Ridiculousness," for example. I challenge the most high-minded viewer not to laugh---with Rob, Chanel and the black guy with the backwards baseball cap who apparently runs the video machine---at these misadventures on video.

They should run some kind of disclaimer with the show: "No one depicted on this show was killed or crippled for life," but it might be untrue.

There will be examples of everything, but even in your example, others are not coerced into danger. The only pedestrians are willing spectators and most locations are closed, others deserted. No red lights are run, no dodging vehicles or pedestrians. For women dangers of cycling still don't outweigh benefits, so men are 2:1. Note, she stopped at the intersection:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cFZdycHGWmw

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